Summer Rendezvous Update
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 We were already very excited about the Summer Rendezvous the weekend of July 19-20th in Stonington, CT, but now there's even more reason to show up: Rod Johnstone, founder of J/Boats, will host a BBQ at his home in Stonington Village on the evening of July 19th.
We are hoping to attract both racers and cruisers to the event. Sunday there will be a fun race/cruise to
Newport as a feeder for the North Americans. And the weekend after that will be the East Coast Championships in Marion, MA. If you want to have a lot of
fun and get some great racing in, put these events on your calendar now
and start to make arrangements!
Local knowledge: Rod mentioned that Stonington Yacht Club's docks can be noisy if the wind kicks up so you may sleep better on a mooring. As a final attraction, he also mentioned a new local sailor's bar called the Dog Watch.
If you plan to attend, please contact Rick Lyall so he has an idea of how much food and how many moorings will be needed.
Photo: Stonington Harbor, looking south out to Fisher's Island Sound. Dodson's Boatyard is the group of white buildings at the lower left of the photo.
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RayMarine Warsash Spring Series
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For those still reeling from the horrendous cold and wind of the Red Funnel Regatta, the benign conditions which greeted competitors for week two of the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series were most welcome indeed. Report by David McLeman.
The fourteen J/109s which came to the start on Sunday basked in the sunshine and enjoyed the pleasant contrast to the first race of the series. After a short postponement the fleet were off on what was intended to be a windward/leeward course zigzagging north from the Ryde Bank back up to the mainland shore. The start saw ZELDA (Ben Richards/Mike Ewart-Smith) and Matt Boyle's SHIVA making good starts towards the pin end of the line, while David McLeman's OFFBEAT won the battle with David and Kirsty Apthorp's J-DREAM for position at the committee boat end.
On the first beat, a 30 degree shift south and increase to eight knots lifted SHIVA and Mike Wallis' JAHMALI up to the layline to round first and second respectively, followed by OFFBEAT and ZELDA who had both tacked away early hoping to find weaker tide on the north side of the main channel and been caught on the wrong side of the beat.
The change in direction reduced the middle of the race to a succession of tight spinnaker reaches and fetches with few place changes, and SHIVA held a comfortable lead from JAHMALI and looked set to win. At the penultimate mark off Hill Head, ZELDA grabbed an overlap inside OFFBEAT to round third and set off in pursuit of the leaders who were over 200m ahead.
With the leaders running to the shortened finish the breeze died and the race began again. Leaders were closed by the chasing pack of BETH (Guy Knight), the RAF's RED ARROW, David McGough's JUST-SO, J-DREAM, and JOHNNY BLUE II (Jeff Dakin, Bruce Jubb and Mike Flood). ZELDA squeezed across the line in front of JAHMALI with OFFBEAT in third place.
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Sprit Fest 2008
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David Jannetti from Sag Harbor, NY sent in this update on the 2008 Sprit Fest:
Consider joining us for Sprit Fest 2008! The classes this year will be J80's, J109's and the excitement of a new PHRF sprit class.
The Sag Harbor area is now home to an expanded fleet of five J109's - GOSSIP, CAMINOS, JIBBER JABBER, SKOOT, and Dave Bett's new boat (yet to be named). J/Boats, Johnstone Yachts, UK Sailmakers and North Sails have already committed their support of the event. The J/109 fleet is predicted to be 15-20 boats strong!
The event format will be similar to last year's East Coast Championship , including the BBQ bash and video Saturday night. You can find all the information (Entry Form, NOR and lodging info) here.
Please let me know if you're planning to attend.
David Jannetti
J109 Sprit Fest Coordinator
631.921.2787
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News from the Irish Fleet
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Paddy Boyd of Boyd Boats (J-UK's Irish representative) sent in this update:
The Dublin Bay fleet has grown to nine boats with two more in the pipeline. This year's season kicks off on Thursday April 24th and we hope to see all of these 109s on the starting line of Class 1 racing under IRC alongside Archambault 35s, Corby 33s, an X -34 and twenty other similarly rated boats.
The first major event of the season is the Irish Cruiser Racing Association IRC Nationals to be held in Howth on the weekend of 9-11 May. IRC boats from Ireland and the UK will compete for national honours alongside Irish entrants for the Commodore's Cup.
Irish 109 owners have held meetings to decide on the class structure and Peter Redden, Rollercoaster, is chairing the meetings of this fledgling fleet.
In association with North Sails, Boyd Boats are hosting a 109 training weekend on April 26th and 27th. While the purpose is to improve skills you can be sure that, like 109s everywhere, the social side of the event will get equally good attention.
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Bill Sweetser's RUSH triumphed over several larger boats to win PHRF's B divison at the 2008 edition of Charleston Race Week. With sunshine and a nice variety of conditions, over 140 boats enjoyed three days of pleasant spring conditions and competitive racing. More photos and full results available at 